There's a lot of upcoming games at GDC, and there's none bigger than New Super Mario Bros. Nestled snugly within Nintendo's mini booth and always busy, the game is being put through its paces and for great reason: It just so happens to be incredible.
The primary reason why I love this game is because it's just Mario Bros. Thus far, I haven't seen much that suggests that Nintendo is dramatically altering the series. It's just a new side scrolling Mario game, albeit one that features new forms, levels, power ups, and other neat features.
At the onset, a dark, ominous cloud hovers over the castle and rains lightning bolts down upon it, and somewhere during this catastrophe the princess gets captured by a Koopa kid and Mario dives into action. Oh that princess. I'm beginning to think that she actually ENJOYS being kidnapped.
At first the opening level looks typically Mario. You maneuver our hero from left to right, pausing to collect coins and destroy bricks with his head. But then something strange happened. I hit this one brick and it revealed this humongous mushroom (Mode 7 style), and when Mario jumped onto it he became HUGE! That's nothing new, as Nintendo has been showing that for over a year, but what's really cool about it is that he can just destroy everything in his path. Mario knocks down warp pipes, barrels through bricks, and stomps on enemies, and doing this just feels immensely satisfying. Unfortunately, however, it's all time based, so eventually he returns to his normal self.
What's also cool is the ability to pan the camera left and right using the L and R triggers, respectively. It just gives you a good idea of what's coming up so you don't just ram into things.
Mario can also execute a ground pound, and this can be achieved by pressing a JUMP button (it appears that all of the face buttons are jump buttons) and then pressing DOWN on the d-pad.
There's also new suits! I picked up a blue turtle shell and Mario put it on. BUT, I immediately picked up a fire flower and lost the shell (doh) so I dont know what it does...yet.
I also spied a Metroid inspired level where Mario starts on the bottom and you need to keep jumping up to reach the top, navigating past moving walls and spikes. It's definitely challenging, especially since those walls are always moving so much. On my last try, they smooshed him pretty good.
In addition to the main quest, which contains 8 worlds and about 80 levels, there's also mini games, the same ones from the DS version of Super Mario 64. But there's also a multiplayer mode where up to 4 (at least 4...the lady demo-ing the game said 16, but that's not confirmed) people can compete against one another in several different games.
Overall, New Super Mario Bros. is immensely entertaining and I want to play more...and I shall. But first I must cover more Nintendo games!
